News of: Friday, 13th of April, 2012

Front Page

The Monday night recovery of a stash of money from the vehicle of the rail minister's assistant personal secretary has opened a Pandora's box of reports on a web of corruption centring recruitment of about 7,000 people in the railway.

Persons who got jobs in Bangladesh Railway East Zone in the last one year, almost all of them had to pay bribe ranging from Tk 2.5 lakh to Tk 6 lakh to a nexus of the zone's General Manager Yusuf Ali Mridha, some other senior officials, and some leaders of local Railway Sramik League.

Rail Minister Suranjit Sengupta's son Soumen Sengupta was awarded a Tk 5-crore telecommunication gateway licence yesterday, just two days after the railwaygate scandal involving the minister's close aide and two top railway officials.

Amid widespread criticism, the railway ministry yesterday recast one of the two committees it had formed earlier to probe the recovery of Tk 70 lakh from the possession of the railway minister's assistant personal secretary (APS) and two top railway officials on Monday night.

Ruling Awami League has directed its Dhaka city unit to select one councillor candidate for each ward to avoid emergence of multiple candidates from within the party in the upcoming city corporation polls.

The Election Commission has decided to warn Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) mayoral and councillor hopefuls who violated the electoral code of conduct by not removing their posters, banners and billboards in the city by April 12 midnight.

The investigation officer who probed the charges of war crimes brought against Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee yesterday presented several pieces of evidence before the International Crimes Tribunal-1.

Locals yesterday set fire to the house and shop of Md Zakaria, the main accused in the kidnap and murder of school boy Naimul Islam Naim in Kahaloo upazila of Bogra, right after a rally they held at the upazila protesting the killing.

Bangladesh will start negotiation with Malaysia on the funding of Padma bridge project once the Southeast Asian country submits its full proposal, Communications Minister Obaidul Quader said yesterday.

Thousands of people took to streets and clashed with police to protest the ruling Communist Party's move to remove popular leader Bo Xilai from its politburo and charge his wife with murdering a British citizen in China's southwestern city of Chongqing on Wednesday.

The two quakes that occurred off the coast of Sumatra on April 11 sent mental shockwaves for millions of people in Bangladesh. What is commendable is the manner in which the Indonesian early warning system alerted people of the need to initiate orderly withdrawal to safer grounds as the danger approached. Thanks to proper dissemination of information and public awareness, Indonesian authorities were in effect able to avoid mass hysteria, which if it had occurred would inevitably have complicated matters for an orderly evacuation.

Sports

Mohammedan Sporting Club posted their third victory in the Grameenphone Bangladesh Premier League when they handed an easy 3-1 defeat to neighbouring Arambagh KS at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.

The farce surrounding the resumption of the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket Super League continued as the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM) said yesterday that it will not be possible for them to restart the league today.

South African Charl Schwartzel shot a red-hot eight-under-par 64 on the opening day of the Maybank Malaysian Open to take a one-shot lead from India's Jeev Milkha Singh at the top of the table at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club yesterday.

Albie Morkel turned the game on its head with some lusty hits as Chennai Super Kings snatched a sensational five-wicket victory in the very last ball against Royal Challengers Bangalore in a dramatic IPL match here on Thursday.

England's Dimitri Mascarenhas notched up a sensational five-wicket haul while Shaun Marsh hit a classy fifty as Kings XI Punjab brought their campaign back on track with a seven-wicket victory over Pune Warriors in an IPL match here Thursday.

UEFA chief Michel Platini on Thursday accused "bandits and crooks" of hiking hotel prices in Ukraine to sky-high levels for the Euro 2012 football championships, amid growing concerns over the price of accommodation. "

Stocks continued to gain for a third day, with the highest turnover since July 31 last year, as institutional and small investors are injecting fresh funds into the market amid optimism. Turnover rose 26.7 percent to Tk 1,079 crore from the previous day.

India's Maruti Suzuki launched its first utility vehicle on Thursday, breaking into one of the country's fastest-growing automobile segments as it battles to recover lost market share. The Japanese-controlled firm, which has seen its share of the Indian market decline to below 40 percent for the first time in its history, said the new vehicle would be important to helping drive future sales growth.

The high value cheque clearing has doubled and the duration of clearing time has reduced significantly maximising speedy payments as Bangladesh Bank is clearing high value cheques and regular value cheques with an automated cheque processing system, officials said.

The government and development organisations should work together on climate change adaptation programmes so that the country can be better equipped in taking on the impacts of global warming, said a climate expert yesterday.

A Supreme Court lawyer yesterday served a legal notice on the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) to stop the process of holding elections to bifurcated Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) until completing the legal procedures.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid yesterday urged the Vice Chancellor (VC), Pro-VC of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) and the Buet Teachers' Association to solve the ongoing problem together to ensure smooth academic activities of the university.

The students of folklore department of Rajshahi University (RU) at a human chain programme on the campus yesterday urged the government to recruit the folklore students in jobs under special quota of the Public Service Commission (PSC).

English language fairs under English in Schools Programme, a joint initiative of The Daily Star and mobile operator Robi, were held for students of seven schools in Netrakona, Bogra, Satkhira and Cox's Bazar districts yesterday.

Letters

There is acute shortage of trained and efficient drivers in the country. In Dhaka city alone some three hundred vehicles are added to the existing fleet every day. In keeping pace with this demand, the number of drivers is inadequate. Of course, there are a few private driving schools in Dhaka but they are not at all sufficient to cope with the growing demand.

From the The Daily Star report of 8 April 2012, we have learnt that malnutrition is the root cause of stunted growth in kids. Statistics say that Bangladesh is in the list of top ten countries with the large number of underweight children.

Nature got wet through the exquisite shower in the morning of 6th April. The morning raindrops fell on leaves and rejuvenated them. It appeared that a long night journey has not ended in another hot and sultry day. All woke up with a touch of tranquillity.

I never thought the day would come to write this; but, it seems that RAB has serious organisational as well as policy-related problems about its field operations. Without legal transparency, their very existence becomes invalid, since no one knows what exactly motivates RAB to fire--necessity or or something calculated ?

S. Islam's report on the above matter, published in your pages on March 28th. is very good news for the Ashuganj Power Plant. The managing director of the plant and his team of engineers and technicians deserve recognition and reward for their initiative and dedication for the excellent work.

Democracy and Islam can flourish together, David Cameron yesterday declared as he gave a landmark speech in Indonesia to tell the Muslim world that it can reject a "dead-end choice" between extremism and dictatorship.

Maoist rebels freed Italian tour guide Paolo Bosusco yesterday, almost a month after kidnapping him in a remote part of Orissa in what was believed to be the first seizure of a foreigner by the leftist guerrillas.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck a defiant tone yesterday two days ahead of key atomic talks with major powers, saying the Islamic state would not surrender its nuclear rights "even under the most difficult pressure".

The complex relationship between poet Rabindranath Tagore and his sister-in-law Kadambari Devi remains in the realm of speculation. While it is well known that she was his companion and muse, much remains unsaid about whether the relationship was entirely innocent.

Around 1,000 artistes will perform in a chorus to usher in the first day of the Bengali year 1419, at a programme organised by Channel i and Shurerdhara. The programme will be held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, today and tomorrow.

After a series of successful screenings in January, “Runway”, the last film directed by the late filmmaker Tareque Masud, is being screened once again in various parts of North Bengal, says a press release. A two-day screening session began yesterday at Dinajpur Loko Bhaban Auditorium.

OP-ED

God doesn't play dice with the universe," said Albert Einstein when certain aspects of quantum theory ran counter to his belief in determinism. But he will turn over in his grave and give his hypothesis a second thought if he knows what happened in Korail slum last week, where god-like men played dice with 120,000 lives. They woke up on the wrong side of bed one morning, and decided to wreck some shanties for fun.

Indecent remarks of the politicians have become a subject of conversations in social gatherings these days, aside from the wide coverage in both print and electronic media. Referring to the recent indecent remarks of some opposition MPs in the Parliament, the prime minister said that she felt ashamed of the utterances of some women opposition parliamentarians. She said: "A gentle lady can't utter such words… I can't imagine that." No one will disagree with the PM on her assertions; but the question is, who should be role model for the politicians to follow in conducting their tongues in what to say and what not to say, be it within the House or outside.

Few days back Bangladesh Bank approved the application for license of nine commercial banks: six from local entrepreneurs and the others from Non-Resident Bangladeshis. It gave rise to widespread debate, and the news media covered the issue significantly by giving both the positive and the critical statements. The main question was whether the new banks were necessary at all. There might be many opposing justifications but I will try to explain this issue on purely economic grounds.

StarTech

The cybersecurity community raked Apple Inc over the coals on Wednesday, saying the company had dragged its heels on eradicating malware that experts say may have infected up to 600,000 Macintosh computers and can be used to ferret out sensitive user information.